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Sunday, April 1, 2012

A twelve-year-old girl, Natasha Moraes de Andrade who has been dubbed the real-life Rapunzel after refusing to cut her hair for her whole life is to cut it all off - and plans to sell the 5ft 2inch of hair for 3,500 to be made into extensions.

Natasha Moraes de Andrade, who lives in an impoverished shanty town in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, has never had a haircut. At 5ft 3in, she is just one inch taller than the length of her wavy chestnut hair - and the a lot of maintenance it requires for her lengthy hair.

Natasha spends four hours per week washing her hair and up to an hour-and-a-half brushing it each day. She also uses a full bottle of shampoo every week to maintain here hair. She has to carry it around when she walks, and fold it onto her lap when she sits down.

Despite Rio's 40-degree heat Natasha's family cannot switch on a fan in the house because her hair gets caught in it. Her mother Catarina Moraes de Andrade, 42, told her never to cut her daughter's beautiful hair as it was so thick and long. Children in her local neighborhood often stand outside her house and chant 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair' at her window, and passersby frequently take photographs

Natasha's mother, Mrs Moraes de Andrade said: 'At the moment she is like a prisoner. She just goes from school to home again'

'She can't do anything else, like sports, because her hair gets in
the way. The school told me she should get it cut so she can have her
freedom like other girls her age.'

'People stare. Sometimes, they call out at Natasha in the street and try to touch her hair.'

'We spend about about 400 a year on shampoo, which is a lot of money for us.'

'I've let her keep it this way because she likes having such long hair, but the time has come to get it cut.
But now she's urging her girl to chop it off because it's interfering with her life.'

Natasha has been offered 1,750 for her hair once it has been lopped off but hopes to make more.
Natasha plans to cut it into a bob before she starts the next term of school. Although
she lives close to one of the city's beaches, she can't go swimming
because sea water damages her hair and takes hours to clean out.

Natasha said: 'I love my long hair and I'll be sad when it's gone. But it's a pain looking after it.

'I can't do a lot of things, like P.E. lessons at school.

'I hope to sell it for 3,500 and refurbish my bedroom. I hope it can give me a new life.'

Natasha, who hopes to be an illustrator when she is older, has drawn a picture of the fairy tale princess Rapunzel, which is on the front door of the house.

Hair loss and male-pattern baldness are pretty common, and thousands of men opt for hair transplants each year in an attempt to cover up that balding patch. Hair transplant procedures can be pretty darn expensive and burn a hole right through your pocket. But if you can withstand the temporary discomfort of a tattoo then you can take advantage of this permanent solution - Hair tattoos.

Created by Ian Watson after he began losing hair due to stress, the procedure is called MHT (Micro Hair Technique) Scalp Pigmentation. This procedure applies various pigment shades to the scalp in order to reproduce the correct shape, size and density of short hairs. Now Watson has HIS (Hair Ink Scalp) Hair Clinics popping up in both the UK and US where he charges $3,000 for the procedure, which is much less than the $40,000 hair transplants many people undergo.

These might look like photographs, but it's not all black and white when it comes to the work of hyper-realist artist Paul Cadden. Despite looking like they have been captured on a camera, these are actually hand-drawn images created by hyper-realist artist Paul Cadden.

The 47-year-old, from Scotland, is able to recreate photos in amazing detail, often just using only a pencil.
From the wrinkles on a woman's face, a puff of smoke from a cigarette or dripping water - Cadden's drawings look unbelievably realistic. Cadden, from Glasgow, was last year shortlisted for Artist of the Year 2011 for his drawing, Painted context. These Incredible art work leaves you wondering whether your eyes have been tricked.

Hyper-realism was born from the idea of photo-realism, which are paintings based on photographs but created in a non-photographic medium. Taking an average of between three and six weeks to produce, Cadden creates about seven pieces each year - which usually come in A1 or A0 sizes - and sell at galleries for up to 5,000 each.

A spokesman for London's Plus One Gallery, which is featuring Cadden's work in its current hyper-realism exhibition, said:'When you look at a picture of his work, they do look like photographs.
'But when you see it in a gallery up close, you can tell it's a drawing. The detail is incredible.'

He said: 'Ive been drawing since I was six years old and have wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember.'

I like to know the stories behind the faces of people I photograph - they could be a veteran war hero, you just don't know.'

'What
makes me different from other hyper-realist artists is that I
predominantly work in pencil, while many others tend to use an airbrush.'

'I have done one painting that measured 60 x 40 inches - but I will never do that again, it was a killer!
'Portraits are my favorite to do - I particularly like the one of a man with water running off his face, called After.'

He added: 'My inspiration comes from the phrase "to intensify the normal". I take everyday objects and scenes of people and then create a drawing which carries an emotional impact - it can be quite beautiful. I try to study the internal aspect of the image rather than focusing solely on the external part. I can fall in love with an image - if that doesn't sound too hippy.'

Hyper-realism tends to create an emotional, social and cultural impact
and differs from photo-realism which is far more technical. From a distance Paul Cadden's work looks like a picture. However, a gallery exhibiting his work said seeing the originals up close reveals the extent of the drawing detail

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. A wide variety of material has been published in newspapers. But, not all the news that is published in the newspapers are correct and the newspaper might even have some mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes may even turn to be so funny. Now take a look at these example of some crazy, hilarious and funny newspaper headlines.